''Todd Quinn will'' present an overview of Intellectual Freedom issues at the Library Training Institute on June 8, 2007. The Library Training Institute is a four-year program of continuing education for library practitioners, support staff and trustees of small public libraries. No prior formal library science education, or previous college attendance, is required to attend. The Institute is coordinated by the South Dakota State Library.

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''The South Dakota Library Association'' has been a member of the board of [http://www.sdog.org/] South Dakotans for Open Government (SDOG) since 2005. SDOG will hold a session on open government at the SDLA annual conference (October 17-18, 2007).

"Law for Librarians" presentation at South Dakota Library Association, September 21

"Law for Librarians" presentation at South Dakota Library Association, September 21

Revision as of 14:57, 21 May 2007

Law for Librarians

The Law for Librarians wiki is for use by attendees of the April, 2006 Law for Librarians seminar. Representatives from ALA state and regional chapters agreed to be responsible for two trainings in their home states, and the wiki is for sharing information about the related activities they're engaged in.

State-by-state activity listing

STATE CHAPTERS

Alabama

At the annual conference of the Alabama Library Association (April), the state Intellectual Freedom Committee sponsored a film showing of Fahrenheit 451 (with popcorn, even). Those familiar with the book and/or film will remember the "Book People." At the end of the film showing attendees were asked to respond to the question "What book would you become and why?" The Committee is also working to revise the state association's intellectual freedom manual and planning for programming during the coming year. The Committee is particularly interested in developing workshops target to library types: academic, public and school; and for the latter two in particular, dual programs to cover the northern and southern parts of the state (there is a need to make a concerted effort to reach rural libraries, many of which do not have professional librarians on staff).

Alaska

At the Alaska Library Association conference in February, we'll have a half-day program, either a preconferece or a general workshop, to cover a condensed version of our training last April. Candy Morgan and either the executive director or staff attorney of the ACLU of Alaska will join me. As you can tell, we're still in the planning stages, but I'll upour listing soon.

Arizona

Ensuring Access Intellectual Freedom Training session was held 04/10/06. This was a training session for current Librarians and Library Technical Assistants of Tucson-Pima Public Library. The training was based on materials from a training session by the same name from Mary Ross of Seattle Public Library and materials introduced at the Law for Librarians Conference. Approximately 25 people attended.

Sept 21, 2006 Main Course- Brown Bag Series - Banned Books
Staff of the Main Library of Tucson-Pima Public Library presented Banned Books to an audience of library staff, downtown workers, and library customers. The presentation included information from Ensuring Access materials and Law for Librarians materials in addition to book displays of books in chains, behind bars, burning, etc. 30 people were in attendance.

INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM 101 FOR TEACHER-LIBRARIANS Is scheduled as a preconference program at the AzLA Conference in Mesa, AZ November 14-16.
This pre-conference will equip Arizona teacher-librarians with the tools to successfully deal with a book or materials challenge. Participants will learn about the principles of intellectual freedom as well as applicable laws and policies at the state and local levels. Recent book challenges will be examined in order to illustrate the various parts of the book challenge process. All participants will receive a copy of Censorship and Selection: Issues and Answers for Schools by Henry Reichman. Program is being sponsored by the Intellectual Freedom Committee of AzLA and presented by Ann Dutton Ewbank, Ph.D. Education Liaison Librarian Arizona State University at the West campus.

November 14, 2006--Delaware Division of Libraries, Dover, DE
9:00am-4:00pm

"Intellectual Freedom Workshop" for public libraries

District of Columbia

Florida

Article published in Florida Libraries "Challenging Censorship in Miami-Dade County" regarding the controversial removal of the children's book Vamos a Cuba by the Miami-County School Board.

Presentations and Workshops planned for the Florida Library Information Network (SEFLIN & NEFLIN) in various public and academic libraries. Plans to work with the State Librarian on an IF program is also "in the works!"

The IFC and the GLBT of the Florida Library Association will co-sponsor a program at their Annual Conference in Orlando in April, 2007. Lesléa Newman, author of the controversial Heather Has Two Mommies, will give a presentation on why she wrote the book, the difficulties she had getting the book published, and some of the controversies it has caused. A video detailing what happened to a library in Texas when the book was challenged will be presented.

Georgia

Hawai'i

April 26, 2006. Pearl City, Hawaii. "Petitions and the Library as a Public Forum" = presentation at the Oahu Managers' (public librarians) Meeting. Attendance: 36. No formal evaluation, but the handouts shared at similar meetings on the other islands generated a couple of phone calls/consultations.

Nov. 11, 2006. Waikiki Beach Marriott Hotel. Hawaii Library Association Annual Conference. "What To Do When the Censor Comes." Attendance: 17. Although smaller than the earlier workshop, this audience was more varied with representatives from small private schools, public schools, college and university, as well as public libraries.

Jan. 3, 2007. Pearl City, Hawaii. "What To Do When the Censor Comes." Attendance: 37. Adapted the general presentation from Nov. 11 to this audience of public library managers. Added specific documents such as the Hawaii State Public Library System Collection Development Guidelines.

Mar. 7, 2007. Pearl City, Hawaii. "What To Do When the Censor Comes." Attendance: 22. At a statewide meeting of young adult specialists from public libraries, the presentation given on Jan. 3 was modified slightly for this audience, discussing recent complaints such as those on manga and graphic novels.

Mar. 16, 2007. Liliha Public Library, Honolulu. "What To Do When the Censor Comes." Attendance: 29. This presentation was at a statewide meeting of children's librarians. There was much audience interaction as participants brought up recent challenges from their islands and how the customer concerns were answered.

Idaho

October 4-6, 2006. Idaho Library Association Annual Conference. Presentation on "Dealing with Materials Challenges." Attendance: 27. Handouts included a thick packet of information, including materials received at Law for Librarians. Also, preceding the annual Intellectual Freedom Auction, two librarians from the Nampa Public Library gave a short presentation on a recent book challenge concerning "The Joy of Gay Sex."

Illinois

I gave a program to the Adult Services Forum (ten people) in our system on confidentiality on May 11 and to a group of 15 public library directors on DOPA on September 15. The state wide programs we are giving are scheduled for March 9, 22, 29, April 12, May 1, 10, and 17 at various systems around our state. These programs will be given by pairs of Intellectual Freedom Committee members and will focus on Defending Access with Confidence by Catherine Lord. We are training the trainers for these programs on November 28 in Champaign. These were in the planning stages last April so we are proceeding with them. I will submit a program for ILA for next year on two or three topics in Intellectual Freedom and focus on whatever I can cover in 1.5 hours. We had a pre-conference to ILA planned for this October but when only 7 signed up, it was cancelled. After the Defending Access programs are done, we will talk about what else we want to do. This is the biggest intellectual freedom project our state has ever initiated so all of my energy is going to it right now.

Indiana

Edie Huffman, representing the Indiana Library Federation's (ILF) Intellectual Freedom Committee, made a presentation to the Knox County Public Library and Knox County League of Women Voter's jointly sponsored Public Issues Forum on balancing intellectual freedom and homeland security (audience of approximately 30 people).

Doug Archer coordinated three presentations at the Indiana Library Federation District 1 Fall Conference in South Bend, IN on October 3, 2006. Attendance varied from 25 to 45 throughout the three sessions. Presenters were Marilyn Irwin, Associate Dean, School of Library & Information Science, Indiana University, Indianapolis and member of the ILF Intellectual Freedom Committee; Rosanne Cordell, Head of Reference, Schurz Library, Indiana University South Bend and Chair, ALA Intellectual Freedom Round Table and Doug Archer, University of Notre Dame.

Law for Librarians: Overview.
Basic constitutional principles and case law behind intellectual freedom and the freedom to read, view and listen to what we choose in America’s libraries. Presented by non-lawyers for non-lawyers.

Law for Librarians: Use of Your Meeting Room.
Just who can legally use our library’s meeting rooms and exhibit spaces? What kind of policies do we need? What’s legal and what’s not?

Law for Librarians: Youth Access.
Are there special legal considerations for serving youth and if so what are they? Does intellectual freedom really apply to everyone?

Law for Librarians: Part Two.
Doug led a follow up session at the Spring District 1 Conference at Valparaiso University on Tuesday, March 13 for about 25 people. It included a review of basic principles, updates on pending CIPA and meeting room court cases, and brief presentations on youth and children's access, DOPA, labeling, and privacy and confidentiality issues.

Marilyn Irwin and Doug Archer also presented “Intellectual Freedom Basics for Schools” to a small audience (less than a dozen) at the Association of Indiana Media Educators' Annual Conference in Indianapolis, IN on November 6, 2006.

I (EH) have one planned for April of 2007 at an ILF Small and Medium Size Libraries Conference on patron confidentiality and behaviour.

Doug and Edie will collaborate on presentations at other events, including the 2008 ILF annual conference (potential audience of 1,500+).

The state IFC has submitted a proposal to the ILF conference planning committee for a Law for Librarians conference-within-a-conference. If the proposal is approved, we will be offering five consecutive sessions on Wednesday, November 14. Deborah Caldwell-Stone, Deputy Director of ALA's OIF will be the keynote speaker and resource person for the event.

The ILF IFC has also proposed a Thursday morning cross generational discussion of privacy and confidentiality needs and values for the ILF Annual Conference.

Iowa

Update: 3/30/07. The first of the IF Workshops at our regional library systems was this morning and it got very good reviews. Topics we dealt with were challenges (including selection policies and reconsiderations forms), successful Internet policies, PATRIOT and meeting rooms. Had a fair number of trustees present and they seemed to get a lot out of the workshop.

Intellectual freedom is riding a wave in Iowa this year. We also have Chris Crutcher as the keynote speaker at the Fall Iowa Library Association conference in Iowa City (that took a little work and a couple of connections) and a major IF concurrent session during the conference.

Kansas

Kentucky

Louisiana

Maine

On Sunday, September 17 at the 2006 Maine Libraries Conference at the Augusta Civic Center in Maine, Melora Ranney Norman presented a program on Meeting and Exhibit Room Policies using June Pinnell-Stephens' PowerPoint presentation on the subject. I handed out paper copies of the PowerPoint along with copies of the relevant policies from Alaska libraries and ALA documents including the LBOR, the LBOR interpretations on meeting rooms and exhibits, and some excerpts from relevant laws.

Maryland

April 20, 2006. Presentation to the Maryland Association of Public Library Administrators on plans to implement in Maryland what was learned at the "Law for Librarians" conference in Chicago.

May 2, 2007. "Can the KKK Meet In The Library? Law for Library Administrators" preconference, Maryland Library Association 2007 annual conference. Can a religious group use the meeting room? Is it a good idea to label parts of the collection according to genre? This presentation by Carrie Gardner and Daniel Mach was well-received by the library administrators in attendence. The overall ratings were 4+ (on a 5 point scale). The 'big ticket" piece of information that attendees carried away was the importance of having policies in place.

May 2, 2007. "What Is This Filth? Law for Front Line Library Staff" preconference, Maryland Library Association 2007 annual conference. 21 attendees. The presenters for the morning portion of the preconference were Carrie Gardner and Steve Anderson of the Maryland State Law Library. They discussed the topics of privacy and confidentiality and rights of youth access to library materials. Mary Somers and Monica McAbee reprised their popular program "Defending Access With Confidence", based on the training program developed by Catherine Lord. Evaluations were positive for this preconference as well. Along with the perennial "concerns" of a too-cold room and a too-short lunch break were some very positive feedback items. Carrie Gardner's presentation was especially praised. The interactive format of the afternoon workshop portion on "Defending Access" was appreciated.

For the future: Mary and Monica will definitely be taking their show on the road. Carrie Gardner has also been preliminarily contacted about doing a fall 2007 program on Youth Access to Library materials.

Representatives from the Minnesota Library Association's Intellectual Freedom Committee (me), the Minnesota Coalition Against Censorship, and the ACLU-Minnesota came together to discuss issues highlighted at the "Law for Librarians" conference. In this 2-hour special session, they discussed privacy and confidentiality issues in rural libraries, the importance of having well-thought-out written policies regardless of library size, and what to do when the media comes calling. Approximately 30 people attended this event.

Children's author, Lisa Westberg Peters, discussed her personal encounters with censorship. After being invited to speak at several schools, Ms. Peters was asked at the last minute not to talk about her book, "Our Family Tree: An Evolution Story," which won the Minnesota Book Award for Children's Nonfiction.

Mississippi

October 26, 2006. "Law for Librarians: A Preview" A two-hour program session sponsored by the MLA Intellectual Freedom Committee at the MLA Annual Conference in Tunica MS.

Fall 2006. Law for Librarians pdf documents "First Amendment and Libraries" and "Internet, CIPA, and Sexual Harassment" (both by Theresa Chmara, 2006) were used in two University of Southern Mississippi School of Library & Information Science online courses, LIS651 Introduction to Information Science and LIS664 Government Publications. In addition, these two documents were posted to the SLIS community website for access by faculty and students for purposes of education.

October 5, 2006. "Libraries and the Law: How the First Amendment Affects Your Policies, Programs and Services." A program sponsored by the MLA Intellectual Freedom Committee at the MLA Annual Conference in Columbia MO.Missouri

Follow-up report on challenge to graphic novels at the Marshall MO Public Library. Missouri 2

August 17, 2006. "Patriot Act." A program presented at the Nevada Library Association 2006 Conference held in North Las Vegas (NV).

New Hampshire

The New Hampshire Library Association is presenting as part of its Fall Conference on November 2nd, The Ps and Qs of Talking to the Press: how to handle unsolicited questions from the press with poise, preparation, and plenty of pauses. Mary Ahlgren and the rest of the NH IFC will use suggestions from the Law for Librarians conference and the new IFC manual to generate discussion among the attendees.

New Jersey

New Mexico

Programs:

October 13, 2006: "Developing an Internet Use Policy: the 1st Amendment, Libraries and the Internet." 1-hour program at the New Mexico Library Association Mini Conference, 15 attendees (5 turned away for lack of space).

October 25, 2006: "Intellectual Freedom, Libraries and Legislation." 45-minute presentation to the League of Women Voters at their "Lunch with a Leader" program, 10 attendees.

Other Activities

Upon my return from the Law for Librarians training, the New Mexico Library Association asked me to lead a Task Force to determine an appropriate role for NMLA in IF issues and to assess whether a separate IF committee (rather than having a combined Legislation and Intellectual Freedom Committee as is currently the case) would better serve the needs of association members. The Task Force is in the process of conducting that assessment. We met in June and will meet again in December to formulate our response to the charge from the NMLA executive board. In order to determine what is needed, we are conducting focus groups in addition to an on-line survey. In the meantime, myself and another member of the Task Force have presented the above programs.

Future Activities

We hope to partner with Jim Heckel and the MPLA IF Committee on two programs at our upcoming joint conference in Albuquerque in March 2007. More on these later if they are accepted by the program committee (and I have every expectation that they will be). Jim has done the hard work of proposing and developing the programs and, for the one, getting a national speaker on board—we are hanging onto his coat tails. This promises to be a great collaboration that probably would not have come about without the Law for Librarians training, at which we made contact.

Meeting with Representatives from four state Regional Library Systems to present and review material received at Law for Librarians. Each representative received a complete packet of information, including CD, courtesy of OLC (Ohio Library Council).

Date: July 13

Time: 10 - 3

Number of Attendees: 10

Evaluation of Success: Regional Libraries, state library and Ohio Library Council positioned to work together to raise awareness of Law for Librarians material and offer sessions on the various modules throughout the state as the need arises. Plan to concentrate on making sessions available at Library staff in-service days.

Intellectual Freedom Committee, Ohio Library Council
Meeting with current IF committee to present and review material received at Law for Librarians. Each IF member received complete packet of information, including CD.

Date: July 28

Time: 10 - 3

Number of Attendees: 8

Evaluation of Success: State IF members plan to incorporate material into existing presentations and create at least one new session for spring State Chapter conferences. Long-term plan is to create presentations to fill an IF track at biannual statewide conferences.

Oklahoma

March 6, 2007 - "1st Amendment -- It's not just for adults!"
A full day workshop on youth rights to information access - presented by Dr. Carrie Gardner for the Oklahoma Library Association.

April 4, 2007 - "John Doe Ungagged" Four Connectict librarians vs. the USA PATRIOT ACT!
Hear from three of the librarians who were served a National Security letter from the FBI. Listen to them explain how the USA PATRIOT Act took away their constitutional right of free speech. Presented at the Oklahoma Library Assocation's 100th Anniversary Conference.

The Pennsylvania Department of Education Office of Commonwealth Libraries and the Pennsylvania Department of Education sponsored two all-day programs on Law for Librarians. They were held in Harrisburg on October 31, 2006 and in Pittsburgh on November 8, 2006. There were a total of 230 school, public and academic librarians in attendance. The programs were very popular and many participants stated that more such sessions are needed. The agenda was as follows:

Dr. Carrie Gardner is an assistant professor of Library and Information Science at Catholic University of America. Attorney J. Bruce Walter has attended ALA's Lawyers for Libraries program and is a public library trustee. Jan O'Rourke is the chair of the Pennsylvania Library Association's Intellectual Freedom Committee. Diana Megdad and Matt Kane are advisors with the Office of Commonwealth Libraries.

The HELIN Consortium Access Services Committee will be sponsoring a workshop entitled “Privacy and Confidentiality in the Library” from 9am – noon on Friday, March 23, 2007 to be held at Bryant University in the library – Room 102. Our speakers will be Carla Weiss, Reference Librarian/Collection Development Coordinator at RIC and Jim Teliha, Head of Access Services at URI.

The workshop will address the issues of patron privacy and the confidentiality of electronic records in libraries today. They will discuss creating guidelines to develop library privacy policies, conducting a privacy audit, the state and local laws that can impact a library privacy policy, records management and retention, and internal guidelines for responding to law enforcement inquiries. There will be a discussion on how to ensure the privacy and confidentiality of shared records within the HELIN Consortium and InRhode by identifying those Innovative policies that violate these principles.

South Carolina

South Dakota

Todd Quinn will present an overview of Intellectual Freedom issues at the Library Training Institute on June 8, 2007. The Library Training Institute is a four-year program of continuing education for library practitioners, support staff and trustees of small public libraries. No prior formal library science education, or previous college attendance, is required to attend. The Institute is coordinated by the South Dakota State Library.

The South Dakota Library Association has been a member of the board of [2] South Dakotans for Open Government (SDOG) since 2005. SDOG will hold a session on open government at the SDLA annual conference (October 17-18, 2007).

"Law for Librarians" presentation at South Dakota Library Association, September 21

Tennessee

Up for the Challenge: Be Prepared at Your School Library/Media Center Program held at the annual conference of the Tennessee Association of School Librarians on November 3, 2006. Covered practical information useful in dealing with library materials challenges in schools, policies and reconsideration forms, including a discussion of the Intellectual Freedom issues and case law that support our freedom to read. Presented by Carrie Gardner from American Library Association. Sponsored by the Tennessee Library Association.

Texas

On October 10, 2006, the first of several planned Law for Librarian training opportunities was held via videoconference. The title was Internet, CIPA, and Sexual Harassment. Information was provided about: Internet, Unprotected Speech, CIPA, DOPA, Filters, Sexual Harassment, and Internet Safety Policies. Nine remote locations participated in the broadcast. More than 90 individuals preregistered to attend. We are still waiting on actual attendance numbers and evaluations at this time.

Over the next two years, we are planning additional Law for Librarian training opportunities. The following is a tentative schedule of upcoming events:

Topics: Religious Issues; Youth Access; Labels and Rating Systems; and Meeting Rooms
Date range: February - May 2007
Format: Face-to-face workshop (in-person)
To be held in at least 10 locations around the state

Plans are underway to offer a "Law for Librarians" training in conjunction with the 2007 Utah Library Association Annual Conference to be held May 16-18 in Provo, Utah. An attorney from ACLU-Utah will be the main speaker addressing important legal issues for libraries that should guide services and policy development (First Amendment, Patriot Act, CIPA, Privacy, etc.). This will be followed by small group break out discussions on how to deal with difficult scenarios in libraries, with the solutions to be critiqued by our attorney speaker and all participants.

We may also include the play developed in Montana "Invasion of the Privacy Snatchers" or a modified version of it. Thanks Montana colleagues for sharing it!

We will soon be posting the ULA IFC "Intellectual Freedom Manual and Action Guide" on our ULA web site: www.ula.org. This publication is intended to be used in local libraries to guide policy development and train staff, trustees, and administrators. We are updating other parts of the ULA IFC web site as well. This updating is greatly needed!

We are also working on developing another IF training to be offered in Utah later in 2007 or early in 2008.

Vermont"First Amendment for Librarians" workshop presented at the Brown Public Library, Northfield, VT on July 28, seven in attendance. Another workshop, "Foundations of the First Amendment", covering the same material with an historical overview, is scheduled for May 8 in Stowe. The workshop will be given late summer/early fall also.

Virginia

On November 10, 2006 the Intellectual Freedom Committee of the Virginia Library Association sponsored a session at the annual conference of the VLA titled "Challenges to Library Resources--How to Prepare and Respond." The session was a panel moderated by Paul Rittelmeyer, co-chair of the IFC, and included Madelyn Wessel, a lawyer from the University of Virginia, and Susan Thornily, Coordinator of Library Information Services from the Fairfax County (VA) Public Schools. Ms. Wessel is the Special Advisor to the University Librarian at UVa and is quite knowledgable in First Amendment law and issues facing libraries. Ms. Thornily, in her experience in Fairfax County, has faced many challenges to books in the school libraries, and has developed policies that do not discourage challenges, but make them more manageable for the librarians. Over forty people attended even though it was the final session on the final day of the conference, and the weather was beautiful. The audience enjoyed the many handouts we had available, and the evaluations indicated the session was quite useful.

Washington
WLA Annual Conference, April 18-21, 2007
April 18: Pre-Conference, "Power to the People: Preserving Open Government" The pre-conference will bring together librarians, archivists and journalists to discuss open government issues, focusing on access to federal and state documents. Editors from The Spokesman-Review and Tri-Cities Herald will give their perspectives on the use of government information with examples drawn from recent investigations. The Washington State Archivist and the Electronic Documents Librarian from the Washing ton State Library will detail efforts to capture and to preserve Washington State documents. April 19: "Intellectual Freedom Challenges: Stories from the Frontlines" A public library director and a school librarian describe what it was like to deal with a major challenge over an issue of access in their own libraries. Bruce Ziegman and Eve Datisman describe the issues that were raised, tactics and pressures used in efforts to limit access, and librariansâ€™ responses, including lessons learned during the process.

West Virginia

Wisconsin
At the 2006 Annual Conference, October 31-November 3 in Wisconsin Dells, Janice Rice, Lisa Strand, and Helen Adams presented "Intellectual Freedom: From Principles to Best Practices" to about 35 individuals. Program description: Youth access to the Internet, challenges to our library collections, and issues of privacy are key areas that will frame this session. Learn about pertinent case law, policies, and guidelines. Speakers will share a snapshot of information gleaned from a three-day Law for Librarians workshop sponsored by the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom. See a preview of the new IFRT website, which will provide links to important IF resources and case law. (This is completed, but needs to be upgraded a bit with live links rather than PDFs.) Come prepared to share your top intellectual freedom concerns to help IFRT develop a more in depth pre-conference in 2007. Sponsors: WLA Intellectual Freedom Round Table, WLA's Wisconsin Library Trustees & Advocates Division

Presentation attendees had good questions and were asked to indicate their interest in learning more by attending a pre-conference at the 2007 WLA Conference, October 16-19 in Green Bay. Janice, Lisa and Helen hope to bring in other speakers this time, possibly some of the legal experts from Law for Librarians.

We have two programs for the Mountain Plains Library Association conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico, March 15, 2007. The first is a talk by Kansas Law Professor Michael Hoefinch entitled: "Libraries and Privacy in the Post 9/11 Era>"

The second is a workshop entitled: Policy and Practice: "How to Avoid the Nasty Bits."

New England

"Don't Get Sued: Meeting Room & Display Policies that Work" This program was offered at the 2006 New England Library Association annual conference in Burlington, VT on Sunday, October 22; it was sponsored by the NELA IFC and supported by some of the New England participants at the Law for Librarians. Discussion of issues raised by the recent Contra Costa case took place; June Pinnell-Stephens' PowerPoint on exhibits was briefly reviewed, and relevant LBOR documents distributed.